The financial-services website Wallethub has ranked New Jersey as the best state for teachers, based on “16 key indicators of teacher-friendliness.”
That may come as a surprise to people who follow K-12 education news. There is perhaps no state where teachers are locked into a more hostile relationship with their governor. Republican Gov. Chris Christie frequently admonishes teachers who question his educational priorities. In 2015, he said teachers’ unions needed a “punch in the face.” And just this past summer, Christie likened the state union to the fictional Mafia family, the Corleones.
Wallethub measured the quality of the education students are receiving and used that to assess teachers’ working conditions. The state also scored high for its low student-to-teacher ratios and its high per-pupil spending.
